How Did I End Up Here?

An MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of the Mind-Body Interface

Photo provided by Author (Jack Cunningham)

In 2019, my father was given a mixed diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. I didn’t know much about the illness, despite three of my four grandparents also having had it. Stepping in to be the main caregiver has taken me on a seven-year journey of discovery. Whilst sad, it’s been a transformational experience. Each day, I’ve been exposed to how the mind we take for granted interacts with a body we also often take for granted. The opportunity to be in lectures and labs, learning and uncovering the mysteries of this phenomenal connection, is one I am enthused to be undertaking. It feels like the next step in a journey I’ve been on for a number of years.

In September 2023, I picked up a book by Gabor Mate called ‘When the Body Says No… The Hidden Cost of Stress’. I’d never heard of him, but I liked the cover, and the context seemed topical. The science linking stress to the onset of various common illnesses blew my mind, yet made complete sense. Years in a very stressful job followed by a crippling divorce preceded my father’s depression. Twelve months later, he had a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s. I read ‘When the Body Says No…’ just as I embarked on a year-long sabbatical from my corporate career. I was no longer sure I wanted to work in finance, but didn’t yet know what not working in finance looked like. I took the sabbatical to give myself the space to work it out.

Photo provided by Author (Jack Cunningham)

I spent a year travelling the world - learning, living, exploring and following whatever piqued my interest (Spanish school; scuba diving; snowboarding; hiking Machu Picchu; launching an activewear brand). But becoming a certified breathwork facilitator (teaching people to correct dysfunctional breathing patterns and guiding them through deeper practices - something I did not know existed as a profession pre-sabbatical) by far had the biggest impact on me. I completed a month-long breathwork teacher training course in South Africa. Once more, I was blown away by the wonders of our mind and its interaction with our body. Entering non-normal states of consciousness through breathing, for example, dreamlike states of creativity or states reached through deep meditation. Understanding how we store and release emotions. I dove headfirst into the science.

This pursuit of knowledge landed me in a conversation with a friend who suffers from a degenerative motor neuron disease. We were discussing some of my experiences during breathwork teacher training, specifically the power of the mind, consciousness, and meditation and breathwork as healing modalities. He suggested I read ‘You Are the Placebo’ by Joe Dispenza. In August 2024, midway through that book, I had a eureka moment. Sitting at my ex-girlfriend’s parents’ place in Scotland, it hit me how much I missed science.

I missed spending my time delving into topics that truly interest me. I realised that this, the mind-body connection, is and has been the nexus of my interest for nearly 10 years. I had never imagined going back to university to study. But sitting in the Highlands of Scotland, I immediately googled ‘masters in the mind-body connection’. This MSc popped up. The Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface MSc is a course at the forefront of the most interesting field of study in the world, in one of the top mental health and neuroscience departments worldwide, the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. I immediately emailed the course lead, Alessandra, to see if I could join the 2024 intake. I knew then this was the path I wanted to be on for the next phase of my life, and I couldn’t wait to start. Whilst the 2024 intake was full (emailing in August to start in September was audacious), Alessandra encouraged me to apply for 2025.

The older I become, the more I try to live my life true to the advice I would give to any children I’m fortunate enough to have. ‘Follow your curiosity’ would underpin everything. Follow your curiosity; the rest will work itself out. I’m privileged to have lived a few different lives and careers by my early 30’s: a scientist at school, a footballer through adolescence, an engineer at university, and a trader in financial markets before returning to study neuroscience and psychology this year. Always looking to expand my mind, I am forever interested in the things I do not know. In discovering this course, I felt myself once again being pulled - pivoting towards a new career and a new chapter. I love it when that happens, and I’ll be forever grateful that King’s College London allowed me to follow this curiosity.

To return to the title… how did I end up here? In hindsight, I would say: an open mind, inner belief, a little naivety and a penchant for following the things that most interest me. In doing so, paths seem to appear I never could have dreamt of, yet walking down them feels oddly familiar (perhaps I have dreamt them).

Luck, fate, fortune… However I got here, I feel extremely blessed. I’m extraordinarily excited for whatever comes next.